Language Acquisition Flashcards
pre-linguistic stage
start to hear mother language in the womb
basic forms of communication:(6mo.)
cooing when pleased
crying for food
crying from discomfort
babbling stage
(6-12mo.)
experimenting with sounds
try to develop motor skills to control mouth, tongue neck, head and lungs
Universally across languages, the informal words for parents or close family (i.e. dad, mum, baba, nana, rather than father, mother, grandfather and grandmother) are made up of the sounds that babies make in this stage.
holophrastic stage
start to utter first words start to connect these with meaning rather than making sound
use one word to represent whole phrase
12-18mo.
two word stage
noun plus verb eg mama look
connecting two words 18-24mo.
telegraphic stage
this stage is a combination of content words but with the omission of grammatical function
for example “I want go park”
24-30 mo.
multi-word stage
use of use grammatical function words, their vocabulary increases, and they are able to make more sophisticated word combinations to express thoughts, requests, and ask questions.
30 mo. -onward
phonological development
By about the age of 5, children learn:
To recognise and make speech sounds.
To understand the patterns of language.
Recognise and mimic consonant and vowel sounds.
Use intonation.
Connect sounds to make intelligible speech.
morphological development
Understand the patterns in word structures.
Join morphemes to create new meaning (e.g., un- to happy = unhappy)
Learn and use grammatical morphemes (e.g., -s on a possession; mummy’s bag)
Overgeneralisation is the phenomenon of a child applying the grammatical rules in an irregular way (e.g., tooths, runned)
lexicological development
Between 12 and 18 months: expressive vocabulary of around 50-100 words. Mostly nouns.
18-24 months: ‘Vocabulary explosion’ occurs, begin to use verbs and adjectives. About 300 words.
24-36 months: pronouns, contractions, adverbs for location (here, there). About 1000 words.
36-48 months: consistent use of contractions and pronouns, start to use reflexive pronouns (myself, herself, himself, themselves). About 3000 words.
48-60 months: more sophisticated conjunctions (when, if, so), questions (when, where, why). About 6000 words.
By the age of 7, children can draw on a lexicon of about 20,000 words, they can use it to make jokes, argue, explain, and give details.
*Expressive language: language a person can use
*Receptive language: language a person can hear and understand
syntactic development
Once a vocabulary of around 100 words has developed, children can start to combine words to make small phrases (usually two-words). Syntactic examples demonstrate the child’s understanding of semantics as well, as the child will combine a noun + verb e.g., ‘daddy come’.
Between the ages of two and three children will develop the subject + verb + object format (e.g., Sandy eat crackers).
Between hour and five they will be able to combine four to five words in a phrase.
By the time they start school, children can use 7–10-word phrases.
semantics development
Semantic development happens before a child begins to speak. In the pre-linguistic stage, children learn to associate objects with meanings. They can understand and follow simple commands. They can also use paralinguistic tools to indicate their wants or needs.
By 2 years of age, children show an understanding of a variety of word classes including nouns, verbs, pronouns and prepositions.
By 4 years children can sort objects by semantic domain (e.g., coloured blocks)
Children will also use semantic overgeneralisation where the meaning of a lexeme is extended beyond its intended use. E.g., using ‘bowl’ to mean plates, cups & containers
Critical period of
language acquisition
(the critical age
hypothesis)
The hypothesis that learning a new language to a level of native
proficiency is biologically constrained to a critical period of life,
beginning in early childhood and ending around puberty. During
this period the brain has a higher level of neuroplasticity (ability
to change). After this time, learning grammar is more difficult.
Usage-based theory + Tomasello
Proposes that children acquire language through social
interaction, in combination with their general cognitive skills; that
they gain knowledge and skills by using language throughout
their life; and that an important role is played by caregivers using
infant- or child-directed speech.
Universal Grammar + Chomsky
The theory that children are born with innate knowledge about
the structure of language, which allows them to adopt any
language. This innate grammar involves a set of language rules
that are assumed to be universal, shared by al languages of the
world.
